Mack camp slams reporter again

8/2/12 6:45 AM EDT

Connie Mack’s campaign responds to a Tampa Bay Times reporter’s query Wednesday about whether the congressman, who leads in Florida GOP Senate primary polls by a wide margin, will endorse former Rep. Dave Weldon in the event of an upset:

"I would expect that under direction of your boss and Bill Nelson's Communications Director, Adam Smith, that these types of questions are going to continue until August 14. Ridiculous," [Mack campaign spokesman David] James replied in an email.

We’ll put that down as a maybe.

The back story here, of course, is that Mack’s campaign has declared war on the Times and Smith, its political editor, alleging that the paper is in the tank for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Judging from the Mack campaign's response to a fairly commonplace question in primary races, it doesn’t look like there’s much prospect for an armistice before November.